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When you asked about previous works of fiction featuring the creation of artificial life I thought of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s novella “The Sandman”, first published in 1816, two years before the first publication of “Frankenstein”. In “The Sandman” the protagonist falls in love with a woman who turns out to be an automaton created by an Italian scientist who presented her as his daughter.
I don’t think that Shelley was actually reading any German novellas but it shows that ideas like that were definitely part of this era’s mindset.

Best regards,
I love your podcast! =)

Larissa on

April 16, 2017 at 8:13 PM

Great interview! I love that you are continuing with Mary Shelley’s writings!

I would assert that the interview with Les Klinger stopped just short of one big thing: Mr. Klinger spoke of Mary’s father – and did not even mention her mother. Mary Wollestonecraft is a pioneer in both rationalist and feminist philosophy, and a highly accomplished writer in her own right.

She had a highly storied life, which would make for a rip-roaring tale all on its own!

The lightest touch of research brings the first paragraph of her biography from Wikipedia: “Mary Wollstonecraft (/?w?lst?n.kr??ft/; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was an English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women’s rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children’s book. Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.”

While, tragically, Mary Wollestonecraft was brought low by the oldest and cruelest of the realities of female biology – death from childbirth, her influence lives on, not least in the continuing philosophical questions raised by her daughter’s most famous work.

Lastly, Mr. Klinger said that Mary Shelley’s father’s education of his daughter was an idea he formed as an experiment – I would refute the assertion that educating his daughter was his own idea and offer as evidence Mary Wollstonecraft’s writing on the topic of educating daughters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoughts_on_the_Education_of_Daughters

Mary Wollstonecraft may not have been there personally to see to her daughter’s education, but her ideas profoundly influenced the husband in the direction of the education to the daughter she left behind.

Thank you for all your hard work, I look forward to the next episode!

Sam Inabinet on

May 1, 2017 at 2:43 PM

Enjoying the ‘cast, as always…
You may have mentioned this in a previous episode, but i don’t recall; the movie Gothic, in which Ken Russell depicts the Shelleys’s wild nights at Byron’s pad, refers to the dream of reviving the dead baby. (Love Timothy Spall, even when playing unlovable characters!)
Also. relating the presence of Middle Eastern characters and culture to the technique of nesting narratives within narratives within etc.; The Arabian Nights aiu was triffically popular in Europe around this time, and a general interest in “Orientalism” started with French translations in the 1700s and lasted into the 1800s until crushed under the weight of Burton’s translation.
Keep up the Good Work! signed, Abby… something…

Todd Williams on

September 8, 2017 at 2:17 PM

Perhaps Mr Klinger mentions this in the Appendix, but one movie with direct references to Frankenstein is the movie Hanna, which is about a young girl who is trained to be an assassin by her father. Good movie with some neat scenes inspired by this great nove’.